In recent years, toy action figures have gained widespread popularity among children. Also gaining popularity with such figures are play sets in the form of interactive building structures having movable parts designed to set the scene where such figures are typically found and to extend the reality of play.
As part of its mandate to promote highway safety, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has, in recent years, promoted through advertisements and other media, two "living" vehicle crash test dummies: "Vince" and "Larry". Their traffic safety message is often delivered with the depiction of a vehicle crash in a motor vehicle crash test center in which one or both of the dummies is broken apart or otherwise damaged.